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More spin on Biden’s “tested” comments from … Barack Obama

Yesterday, I reported about how Obama’s campaign was spinning Joe Biden’s Sunday remarks about how Barack Obama, being the new kid on the block (so to speak) would be tested in his first six months if elected president.

Today, it gets even funnier – and this time it was Obama himself who tried to “explain” things:

(RICHMOND, VA.) – Although Barack Obama’s meeting with the campaign’s national security experts today came on the heels of Joe Biden’s comments that Obama will “tested” in the first six months of his administration, Obama denied that there is a connection between the two.

“It was prompted by the fact that, I was focused fairly single-mindedly on the financial crisis” Obama explained, adding that the meeting was planned two to three weeks ago.

However, when pressed on his running mate’s comments, Obama admitted that Biden may have misspoken.

“You know I think that Joe sometimes engages in rhetorical flourishes” Obama said. “But I think that his core point was that the next administration is going to be tested regardless of who it is.”

“Mark my words,” the Democratic vice presidential nominee warned at the second of his two Seattle fundraisers Sunday. “It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We’re about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don’t remember anything else I said. Watch, we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.”

“I can give you at least four or five scenarios from where it might originate,” Biden said to Emerald City supporters, mentioning the Middle East and Russia as possibilities. “And he’s gonna need help. And the kind of help he’s gonna need is, he’s gonna need you – not financially to help him – we’re gonna need you to use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with him. Because it’s not gonna be apparent initially, it’s not gonna be apparent that we’re right.”

He made a brief remark on domestic issues, but then went right back to foreign policy – which was clearly what he was trying to emphasize the entire time:

“I’ve forgotten more about foreign policy than most of my colleagues know, so I’m not being falsely humble with you. I think I can be value added, but this guy has it,” the Senate Foreign Relations chairman said of Obama. “This guy has it. But he’s gonna need your help. Because I promise you, you all are gonna be sitting here a year from now going, ‘Oh my God, why are they there in the polls? Why is the polling so down? Why is this thing so tough?’ We’re gonna have to make some incredibly tough decisions in the first two years. So I’m asking you now, I’m asking you now, be prepared to stick with us. Remember the faith you had at this point because you’re going to have to reinforce us.”

“There are gonna be a lot of you who want to go, ‘Whoa, wait a minute, yo, whoa, whoa, I don’t know about that decision’,” Biden continued. “Because if you think the decision is sound when they’re made, which I believe you will when they’re made, they’re not likely to be as popular as they are sound. Because if they’re popular, they’re probably not sound.”

There was nothing, absolutely nothing, in Biden’s remarks that indicated that he meant “whoever was elected,” whether it ends up being McCain or Obama. Clearly he was saying Obama, if elected, was going to be tested on an international scale the first six months of his presidency by people who believed he was too inexperienced. In order to try and ease any lingering fears doubters may have about Obama’s lack of substantial foreign policy creds, Biden actually tried to talk down his own 30 years of experience on that front and pump up Obama’s as if it were better! Hysterical, considering Biden was supposedly picked because his experience in that arena would help Obama out with voters who have been concerned about his lack thereof.

The media may have swallowed whole Obama’s spin about Biden’s comments, but a simple review of Biden’s remarks tells a far different story than the way the Obama campaign has tried to spin the remarks the last two days.

Sounds to me like Joe Biden knows exactly what’s likely to happen, knows what Obama’s response is likely to be, and knows that Obama’s response is going to be very unpopular, possibly even leading to calls for his impeachment, judging from the

your influence within the community, to stand with him

comment. In fact, it even sounds a little like Obama is going to do something to make whatever Biden is talking about happen. Isn’t it about time that the media did just a little bit of their job and asked Biden what the hell he was talking about?I also like the bit where Obama says it’s going to happen regardless of who is in the White House. Like, if Carter and Mondale had been in office during the eighties both the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union would still have come tumbling down.Rhetorical flourishes, indeed! Does Mark my words sound all that much like fr’instance? Rhetorical flourishes are for saying things like “I will take public campaign financing.”

This wasn’t just some happenstance rhetorical flourish, or gaffe on Bidens part. This was delivered with intent.

Why? I don’t know, but my gut tells me, he’s gotten a peek into the inner sanctum. He’s gotten a lil preview of the REAL Obama presidency, and he wants out. He wants to leave Congress, someday, with some dignity, respect, and his “good” name intact. For as much as he gaffes, I don’t believe him to be of the criminal nature.

Barring any other way to bow out, and not wanting to face the scorn of his fellow libs….he’s using other tactics, and they work. He’s being held back now, so as not to cause more damage for the comrades.